If You Cannot Take the Head, Break a Leg
Lu Bu was coming.
As several thousand cavalry thundered down on us, Zhang He and Zhao Yun locked their hands around their spears. We had braced for a frontal charge and strewn every palisade and caltrop we possessed. Laid out in a half-circle, the obstacles could not be avoided no matter which way the enemy tried to swing around them.
"Rear archers, stand ready. Wang Ling. Hao Zhao."
"Yes, Deputy Imperial Censor!"
"Each of you, take your own men and fall out to either side of me."
"...!?"
"Not holding the center against the front... out to the flanks?"
"There's no time! Wang Ling to the left wing, Hao Zhao to the right. The instant I raise the flag, you answer at once. In this situation we get exactly one chance."
"A lure, and an ambush for the two of us... Understood. We'll take the men and stand ready."
Hao Zhao and Wang Ling shifted their troops at once. In that same breath, Lu Bu moved on the front.
"Hah. A worthless little fence."
He simply vaulted the palisade whole, and every sweep of the Sky-Piercing Halberd sent soldiers dying. Blood sprayed with each stroke. The long-spear company tried to hold, steel shields forward and spearheads thrust out, but the cavalry that had come in with him was already trampling our men underfoot.
"Archers! Cover them!"
The archers guarding me in the rear drew and loosed in a wild volley at Lu Bu out ahead. It was a long shot, and yet—as if he had eyes at his temples and another pair in the back of his head—he batted the shafts aside with the halberd.
"Where's their commander? Come stick your neck out in front of Fengxian, and be quick about it!"
The first to charge that rampaging madman was Zhao Yun.
Shiiing!
"Cease fire! Cease fire!"
Zhao Yun's back had completely blocked Lu Bu. A shot meant to help would just as easily have struck him. Spear drawn with absolute confidence, he locked with Lu Bu in a duel that was truly tremendous—and, on the other side of it, I was anything but easy.
"Take Lu Bu's men! We're backing Zilong!"
While Zhao Yun held Lu Bu fast, Zhang He immediately raised his spear against the troops cut off from their lord. They had planned it from the start: Zhao Yun would pin Lu Bu, and Zhang He would deal with Lu Bu's army. Which meant I had a part to play from where I stood.
"We have to lift our men's spirits! Deploy the military band and beat the drums of the advance!"
Boom— boom— boom— boom!
I set the band at the fore, drums pounding encouragement, and picked the finest marksmen among the archers to loose toward Lu Bu's banner.
"A bow! A bow!"
I took one myself, drew, and sent the shaft straight at the banner bearing the character Lü. The flag was pierced and fell. Zhang He, seeing it, drove his men harder still, pressing to crush Lu Bu's troops—and in that instant—
KRAAANG!
Lu Bu brought the Sky-Piercing Halberd down with everything he had. Zhao Yun's spear snapped. The horse's leg broke beneath him, and the beast collapsed.
"Damn it! A horse! A horse!"
I swung up onto a mount from the center and led a second, trying to get a fresh horse through to Zhao Yun. The blow had been savage enough to kill the animal outright. Staggering, Zhao Yun twisted desperately and barely hauled himself upright on the broken spear.
"Hmph. You did well enough..."
Shing!
The moment Lu Bu raised the halberd in triumph, Zhang He charged in and struck it aside. Lu Bu simply shoved him off by raw strength and drove deeper into the heart of our army. Standing at the van, carving his own road and sweeping men away in a single stroke, his eyes met mine. He came on as if he had found his prey—and behind him Zhao Yun leapt, aiming for his back.
"...?"
Shiiing!
The movement was barely human. Even after rolling across the ground from that earlier impact, Zhao Yun rose again and hurled his spear like a harpoon at the mounted Lu Bu's back. Lu Bu lifted the Sky-Piercing Halberd once more and knocked it away. He raged harder, butchering the men in front of him, and in a flash Zhang He's and Zhao Yun's forces were driven back until the fighting reached the center where I stood. I could not even get close to Zhao Yun.
Drenched in blood from head to foot, Lu Bu bared his teeth at me in a rotten grin, pointed, and drew a finger across his throat.
"I meant to trample you a while longer, but the retreat flag's up. I'll leave it here for today. I'll be back before long—wash your neck and wait."
He's leaving? No. Absolutely not.
I already knew that a Lu Bu properly supplied and armed was a truly dangerous man. He was the Flying General, pouring out a ferocious assault, and even Zhao Yun and Zhang He had been pushed back by a hair. If he withdrew like this, he would have succeeded in tearing through our camp with his main force intact. Our morale would plunge off a cliff, and even if we fought again, terror would keep the men from bringing their full strength to bear.
We have to lock with him once more, here and now. However dangerous it is, we catch him and snap at least one limb, so he can never make another mad charge like this.
The reserves waiting in the wings were more than enough. I trusted Zhang He and Zhao Yun. So I drew a deep breath and shouted.
"Lu Bu! That maid you left behind on Mount Tai is in my house right now!"
"...What?"
"A peerless beauty, at that! You went and took a homely woman, and you can't even recognize a beauty when you see one—your eye's no better than your old man's!"
Lu Bu's eyes flared, axe-sharp, and he raised the blood-soaked Sky-Piercing Halberd. Zhang He and Zhao Yun heard the taunt and immediately set their shields forward, bracing to stop him if he charged again. We were already of one mind, hand and foot; they sensed at once that I meant to bait the man and drag him back in.
"I received that wise, beautiful maid with pleasure. She'll be bearing my child before long. You paw at this woman and that and still haven't got a son—aren't you just a seedless gourd?"
"K-KRAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Driven to the absolute peak of his rage, Lu Bu charged blind, brute-stupid, seeing nothing at all. Zhang He and Zhao Yun planted themselves once more before the howling madman, and the collision was tremendous. The ground shook as if in an earthquake. Sweat soaked the line of my back.
He forced his way in without regard for anything, and the moment he finally broke through Zhang He and Zhao Yun, I raised my bow.
"Hao Zhao! Wang Ling! Now!!"
I aimed at the head of Lu Bu—eyes rolled white, bursting their encirclement to kill me—and loosed.
Shiiing!
He knocked the arrow aside as if it were nothing. But what came next—
Shwack-shwack-shwack— shrrrrrr—
The ambush archers I had pulled out to both flanks moved as one. Hao Zhao and Wang Ling, and a storm of arrows beyond counting, flew at Lu Bu as he charged straight in.
"Kraaaagh!"
"Aagh! Damn it!"
The blood-mad cavalry of Bingzhou, following him in a bid for my neck, took the shafts from left and right and collapsed into hedgehogs.
Hao Zhao
Zhao Yun / Zhang He — Lu Bu ——▶ Me
Wang Ling
In an instant Lu Bu's army was surrounded on every side and turned into fodder for arrows. Lu Bu himself halted that murderous advance and battered wildly at the shafts raining in. One struck his shoulder, another his back, and the red-maned horse beneath him—the Red Hare, arrows lodged in saddle and rump—went mad, bucking and thrashing.
"Eeeiik! Eeeeiiik! You bastard!"
Lu Bu drew and hurled, reaching straight for me.
Shhhhhk—
"!?"
CRACK!
Light flashed before my eyes, and I jerked my head on reflex. A sword buried itself in the wall beside my skull, the hilt quivering. It had missed me by the width of a finger joint, driven deep. A hair closer, and I would have died on the spot.
Having thrown the sword, Lu Bu wheeled toward the left wing and ran. Aside from this hill the ground was all flat; get past Wang Ling, and he could make it back to Xincai Castle. The instant he moved to strike Wang Ling head-on, the sound of entirely different cavalry rang out.
A split second. A reflexive judgment.
"Wang Ling! Break this way! Avoid Lu Bu!"
I had the retreat gong struck and shouted for him to evade the Lu Bu charging his wing. Even as I called, I nocked and shot at the line of Lu Bu's spine, and by great good fortune Wang Ling broke off at once and came running this way. Did Lu Bu pursue Wang Ling's men? No. He simply rode down the hill.
And I saw them. From below the hill, from a place I had never expected, several hundred heavy cavalry were climbing urgently toward the left wing—come to save him.
"That mad rhinoceros is flanking out and slipping away!"
If Wang Ling had held his ground, the reinforcing heavy horse of Lu Bu's army climbing the hill behind him would have cut him to pieces front and rear.
"Deputy Imperial Censor!!"
Zhao Yun too burst from the melee on a fresh horse soaked in blood, a bent spear in hand, and rode hard for me. Heedless of the earlier blow, he meant to face Lu Bu to the very end. For an instant Lu Bu's eyes bulged—but the captain of the heavy cavalry who had come as reinforcement dared to seize him and drag him down the slope.
Wang Ling and Zhao Yun raced to my side to guard me. Hao Zhao climbed back up and kept loosing into the backs of the fleeing Lu Bu army to the very last.
"Deputy Imperial Censor! The field is cleared!"
Zhang He had swept away the troops cut off from Lu Bu and tangled in the melee, and now he was back. Lu Bu had torn through our formation—but the price of that tearing was a considerable number of his own men.
"We've taken four-tenths of the enemy horse from the opening clash. Lu Bu won't be able to charge again!"
Only at Zhao Yun's report could I finally let out a breath. We had pulled Lu Bu all the way up to our faces, managed at last to snap a leg out from under him, and sent him running.
"Repair the damage, and mobilize the army physicians at once—the wounded first!"
"Yes, Deputy Imperial Censor!"
"Wang Ling, bring a hammer. I'll repair the palisade myself!"
This was no time to sit back and catch our breath just because we had won. The dead had to be gathered, the wounded treated, and the broken camp built back up.
"Deputy Imperial Censor, it is a true mercy that the same stratagem we used against Yuan Shu took hold. Lu Bu, however, was something beyond that."
Shaking the blood from my armor, I spoke low of a fight that, only moments ago, had crossed the line between life and death.
"I knew that unless we used me—the commander—as bait, that bastard Lu Bu would never come back in."
"It looked reckless. But thanks to it we have broken his mobility. I believe we have bought ample time."
"You held, and in that split second you cut down the soldiers who served as Lu Bu's own hands and feet. That merit belongs to you and Zilong."
"The commander staked his life. We, likewise, were bound to stake ours against the remnants that broke in."
Zhang He gave a quiet nod and joined me in the work of repairing the palisades and the defensive line.
That Lu Bu, in that moment of life and death, had been pulled clear—several hundred riders swinging him around the enemy line—was thanks to his lieutenant, Gao Shun.
"...Two hundred paces. If I had only covered that distance, I could have torn that bastard apart!"
"Your horse was struck by arrows, and you yourself were in dan—"
SMACK—
Enraged by the words of Lieutenant Gao Shun, who had ridden to save him, Lu Bu slapped him across the face. The blow was so fierce the helmet flew off and rolled across the ground. One side of Gao Shun's face blazed red, and still he kept his eyes calmly shut and finished what he had to say.
"In that situation, I judged it best to withdraw with you, General."
"This bastard still—!"
In an instant every officer seized Lu Bu in desperation and held him back.
"General! Calm yourself!"
"General, Lieutenant Gao's judgment was wrong, yet you have returned safely to camp."
"The man who insulted you—we will take him! Please, master your temper!"
Grrrind—
Teeth grinding, Lu Bu stared toward Zhang Qian's camp with killing intent thick upon him. If, after the first charge, he had broken the defensive line and then withdrawn, the result would have been flawless. But when he had meant to crush them just enough and turn back, Zhang Qian's taunt snapped the tether of his reason in an instant. He had charged recklessly and lost a great many soldiers to the ambushing archers.
"Wei Xu. Go to Yiyang in the rear and bring another ten thousand troops."
"General, then the support for Zhang Liao's army, the one attacking Xincai..."
"Do you mean to make me say it twice?"
Lu Bu glared, eyes wide, and even Wei Xu—kinsman though he was—could not get another word out.
"I depart at once."
Once Lu Bu caught fire, he was a mad tiger no one could restrain. His only aim was Zhang Qian's head. Beyond that, he saw nothing.